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[[Image:Pogy.jpg|right|thumb]]

'''Henri Poincaré''' (1854-1912) was a French "mathematician, geometer, philosopher, and man of letters, who was a kind of poet of the infinite, a kind of bard of science."<ref>This quote is from his funeral.  See http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poincare.html</ref> Today he is best known for being one of the first to propose the special theory of relativity.  Due to a childhood illness (diphtheria), he was originally taught at home by his mother.<ref>http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poincare.html</ref>

'''Henri Poincaré''' (1854-1912) was a French "mathematician, geometer, philosopher, and man of letters, who was a kind of poet of the infinite, a kind of bard of science."<ref>This quote is from his funeral.  See http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poincare.html</ref> Today he is best known for being one of the first to propose the special theory of relativity.  Due to a childhood illness (diphtheria), he was originally taught at home by his mother.<ref>http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poincare.html</ref> Poincare was perhaps the greatest [[French]] mathematician ever, in the league of or better than [[Blaise Pascal]] (1623-1662), [[Pierre de Fermat]] (1601-1665), and [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] (1749-1827).

When Poincaré later enrolled in school, he was a brilliant student, excelling in nearly every subject in the Lycée (now renamed after him) and winning first prizes in a competition among the top students from all the Lycées across France. He did not learn by rote memorization, however, but by linking ideas in a visual manner, an approach attributed to his poor eyesight that prevented him from seeing what was on the blackboard. He received a doctoral degree in mathematics based on a thesis in differential mathematics that some of his reviewers criticized. He then taught in a university, where he also had critics of his disorganized style, but in 1886 gained an appointment to a prestigious chair of mathematical physics and probability at the Sorbonne. He taught there until his death at age 58.  

When Poincaré later enrolled in school, he was a brilliant student, excelling in nearly every subject in the Lycée (now renamed after him) and winning first prizes in a competition among the top students from all the Lycées across France. He did not learn by rote memorization, however, but by linking ideas in a visual manner, an approach attributed to his poor eyesight that prevented him from seeing what was on the blackboard. He received a doctoral degree in mathematics based on a thesis in differential mathematics that some of his reviewers criticized. He then taught in a university, where he also had critics of his disorganized style, but in 1886 gained an appointment to a prestigious chair of mathematical physics and probability at the Sorbonne. He taught there until his death at age 58.